Somali parliament revisits impeachment motion against the president
Mugadishu – Somalia’s parliament has convened a new session discussing about the impeachment motion against the president which was recently scrapped by the speaker as invalid, citing legal reasons.
Saturday’s meeting which the speaker Mohamed Sheikh Osman said aims to resolve the political crisis has had large number of legislators attending along with the Somali prime minister who is present at the meeting on behalf of the president.
Mr. Osman highlighted the importance of ending the stalemate which he said risks the reversal of political and security gains by the government.
Dismissing the motion last month, Mr. Jawari has also ruled out treason and corruption allegations against the president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, an argument MPs used as a reason which they said forced to file the impeachment motion as ‘baseless’, terming large parts of the motion’s clauses as ‘unfitting’ to make solid arguments.
However, lawmakers leading the impeachment motion against Somali president have dismissed a decision by the parliament speaker which dropped the motion which echoed warnings by the international community which said it could lead to a political turmoil in Somalia.
President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has subsequently warned against the campaign, calling the legislators to reflect on the country’s interests and avoid creating a political mayhem which he said could derail ‘progressive’ political and security gains in Somalia.
The United Nations has also added its voice to the international community pressure, calling for resolving the impeachment crisis through dialogue.
In the meantime, Somalia which faces a deadly insurgency by Al-Shabab has proposed holding presidential elections in 2016, however, Somali president has dismissed the likelihood of holding popular elections due to security reasons.
Somalia’s donors often express worries over perpetual political wrangling between presidents, prime ministers and parliament, saying the spat could inflame tensions and undermine the country’s recovery from over two decades of conflict